Automatic street-car indicator.



PATENTED JUNE 14:, 1904-.

F. H. WEHRMANN. AUTOMATIC STREET GAR INDICATOR.

APPLICATION FILED 0013.27, 1903.

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No. 762,670. PATENTED JUNE 14, 1904.- P. H. WEHRMANN.

AUTOMATIC STREET CAR INDICATOR.

APPLIOATION 1mm) OUT. 27, 1903.

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a No. 762,670.

UNITE STATES Patented June 14, 1904.

PATENT OFFICE.

FRANK H. WEHRMANN, OF STILOUIS, MISSOURI, ASSIGNOR, BY DIRECT AND MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO AMERICAN -AUTOMATIC INDICATOR MANUFACTURING COMPANY, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, A CORPORATION OF MISSOURI.

AUTOMATIC STREET-CAR INDICATOR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Iietters Patent No. 762,670, dated June 14, 1904.

Application filed October 27, 1903.

, To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, FRANK H. I/VEHRMANN, a citizen of the United States, residing at St. Louis, State of Missouri, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Automatic Street-Car Indicators, of which the following is a specification, containing a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part hereof.

My invention relates to an automatic electrical street-indicator for cars; and it consists of the novel construction hereinafter described and claimed.

The object of my invention is to provide an improved automatic electrical street-indicator for cars which shall possess points of excellence not heretofore known in the art.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a front elevation of the endless indicator-box with parts broken away. Fig. 2 is a side elevation of same with the actuating electromagnet and its immediate connections located upon the exte rior of the box and with the endless indicator and its rollers shown in dotted lines. Fig. 3. is a diagrammatic view of the electrical connections made use of in applying my invention to a car having an overhead trolley. Fig. 45 is a detail perspective view of the trolley and its immediate connections. Fig. 5 is a detail perspective view of a guide-spring and a spring-clog used in connection with a ratchet pin-wheel for actuating the endless indicator. Fig. 6 is a detail view of a portion of the endless indicator, showing the manner of applying the detachable name-cards thereto.

My invention is of course adapted for use upon all kinds of cars, whether street or railway cars, as its function is to indicate the I 4 several street-crossings or stations along the railway-line;

1 indicates the endless indicator-box, which in the present instance is of rectangular shape and provided with a front door 2, which is preferably mounted upon common hinges and secured by means of a padlock 3, hasp 4:, and

Serial No. 178,796. (No model.)

staple 5. IVithin this box is mounted upon suitable rollers an endless web 6, which is caused to travel in the rear of a sight-opening 7 formed in the box 1. Said endless web 6 is provided upon its outer surface near each edge with a series of pockets 8 for receiving and holding the detachable name cards 9, which latter may have the names of the various streets or stations printed upon their outer faces .and are arranged in regular and reverse sequence, so that they will pass successively across the sight-opening 7 as the car moves forward and backward along the line. Said pockets 8 are formed by securing at intervals a strip of material to the front of the web 6, the fastening devices being indicated by the numeral 10. (See Fig. 6.) I preferably make use of four rollers 11, two rollers being located in the top of the box and two near the bottom thereof. I also use two additional intermediate rollers 12 and 13, which are mounted to revolve in a central position, and the roller 13 is made adjustable for the purpose of tighteningor loosening the web when required. For such purpose its pintles 1A are mounted in vertical slots 15, so that they may be moved up and down, and such movement is limited by a bearing-block 16, having a vertical slot 17, in which is located a screw or bolt 18, so that when the latter is tightened said block will be fixed in position and support the pintle above it. The endless web 6 is passed over the four rollers 11 and is thence passed upwardly and over the roller 13 and at one side of the roller 12, as shown in Fig. 2. The principal function of the rollers 12 and 13 is to provide a support for a greater length of web than could be mounted uponthe four rollers 11. It is therefore apparent that in some cases I may dispense with the rollers 12 and 13, &c. The pintle 19 of one of the lower rollers 11 projects through the end of the box and has fixed upon it a ratchet pin-wheel 20, which has projecting from its outer faceaseries of pins 21. These pins are adapted to be contacted by a reciprocating pawl 22 to rotate said wheel intermittently step by step. Said pawl is provided at its lower end with a curved guidearm 23, which is yieldingly engaged by a flat guide-spring 24, and thereby said guidearm is retained in contact at all times with one or more of the pins 21, carried by said ratchet pin-wheel. One end of said guidespring 24 is fixed to a block 25 or some other portion of the box 1, and the opposite end of said spring is provided with a guide-arm 26, the purpose of which is to retain in proper position said guide-arm 23 of the pawl 22. Retrograde movement of the pin-wheel is prevented by a spring-pawl 27, which is provided at one end with a laterally-projecting lug 28 for engaging the pins 21, and the opposite end of said spring-pawl 27 is fixed to the block 25 by means of a suitable screw or rivet 29. Motion is communicated to the pawl 22 by the power of an electromagnet 30 and intermediate connections, which will now be described.

31 indicates the armature of the magnet, and the same is fulcrumed at 32.

33 indicates a lever fulcrumed at 34 and having one end pivotally connected to the outer end of the armature 31 by means of a link 35. The free end of the lev er 33 is connected to the upper end of a vertical pushrod 36 by means of a pin or bolt 37 working in a slot 38, formed in the said lever 33. Said push-rod 36 is mounted in bearings formed in vertically-alined ears 39, projecting outwardly from a base-casting 40, which latter is secured to the end of the box 1 by means of suitable screws or other fastenings 41. 42 indicates a shoulder or enlargement located upon said push-rod adjacent the upper ear 39. 43 indicates a coiled spring mounted upon said push-rod between said shoulder 42 and said lower car 39.

44 indicates a guide-bracket lixed upon the end of the box 1 by means of suitable screws 45, and said bracket is provided with a lateral lug 46. The purpose of this bracket is to guide the pawl 22 and retain it in proper position with relation to the pins 21 of the ratchet pinwheel. The lower end of the push-rod 36 is pivotally connected to the upper end of the said pawl 22.

Current is supplied to the magnet by means of a conductor 47, which passes through the top of the box and is connected to a common snap-switch 48 and to a common resistancecoil 49 and passes thence to the magnet 30. The purpose of the said resistance-coil is to reduce the voltage of the current and adapt the same to the resistance of the said magnet. From the magnet the conductor 47 passes downwardly out of the bottom of the box and is connected to the ground in any known manner, but preferably through the car: wheels. Current is supplied to the conductor 47 from the usual overhead trolleywire 50,

passing therefrom to an inclined two-way contact device 51, suspended from the spanwire 52, connected to the trolley-wire 50 by means of a short conductor 53.

54 indicates the common insulator now in use for suspending and insulating the trolleywire 50 from the span-wire 52. The spanwire should of course be provided at its ends with the usual insulators. (Not shown.)

55 indicates the wheel-trolley, which is connected to the top of the car 56 in the usual manner. Pivotally mounted upon the trolley, near the upper end thereof, is a weighted contact device 57, which is supplied with a weight 58 at its lower end or some equivalent yielding device, whereby said contact device will normally keep a vertical position. 59 indicates a bracket upon which said weighted con tact device is mounted. Said weighted contact device should of course be insulated from the trolley-pole, and this may be done in any common manner. The upper end of the conductor 47 is connected to the said bracket 59 and is electrically connected to the said weighted contact device.

A two-way contact device 51 should be located just in advance of each street-crossing or station along the line of railway, so as to permit of actuating the street or station indicater in advance of the arrival of the car at each street-crossing or station. The weighted contact device 57 is yielding or elastic, so that it will yield when it comes in contact with said twoway contact device 51 no matter whether the car be moving forward or backward. v

The operation is as follows: Upon the passage of the car carrying the trolley 55 the weighted contact device 57 will make contact with the two-way contact device 51, and current will thereupon pass from the trolley-wire 50 through the short conductor 53 to the said two-way contactdevice 51, and thence through the weighted contact device 57 to its bracket 59, thence to the conductor 47, thence to the switch 48, thence to the resistance-coil 49, thence to the magnet 30, and thence to the ground. Such passage of the current will immediately actuate the armature 31 and force downwardly the pawl 22, and it will move the ratchet pin-wheel 20 one step, and the same will be held against retrograde movement by the spring-pawl 27, and such movement will move the endless web 6 a corresponding distance and expose a street or station name-card 9 through the sight-opening 7. The pins 21 strike and primarily tilt downwardly the lug 28 of the spring-pawl 27 when the pin-wheel is moved by the pawl, and such movement is permitted by the resiliency of the spring 27, which compels said lug to act as a cam with respect to said pins, or, in other words, said pins strike said lug and tilt the same out of its normalposition, and then said pins slide over the same, and thereby depress said lug below the path of said pins, after which the lug will be returned to its normal position by the power of said spring 27, which carries said lug. Should it be desirable to remove the armature 31 a greater distance from the poles of the magnet 30, all that is necessary is to detach the common screws which hold the fulcrum 32 and move said fulcrum upwardly a slight distance and then reinsert said screws and secure the fulcrum in position, as before. The fulcrum 34 of the lever 33 may be also adj usted in the same manner. Another way of ac complishing the same thing is to make the connecting-rod 35 somewhat longer, as it is evident that I am not limited to anylength of such rod, as its elongation is a mere matter of degree. As the car approaches another station the above-described operation will be repeated. If the movement of the car be reversed, the above-described operation will also be repeatcd no matter in what direction the car may move. The car should of course travel from one end of the line to the other, and in so doing the names of the streets or stations will be successively exposed through the sightopening 7, beginning with, say, station No. 1 and ending with station No. but when the car is reversed the names of the stations will appear at the sight-opening in reverse sequence, although the endless web continues to move in the same direction whether the car be moving forward or backward. As soon as the weighted contact device 57 runs 011 of the two-way contact device 51 the circuit will be broken through the magnet, 30 and its armature will be released, and thereupon the spring 43 will cause the parts to resume their normal position, which is that in which they are shown in Fig. 2.

6O 61 indicate a pawl-and-ratchet connection between the pin-wheel 20 and its pintle 19, whereby said wheel may move in one direction only upon said pintle; but this pawland-ratchet connection is not necessary, and I prefer not to use the same, as it is only necessary to fix said pin-wheel rigidly upon said pintle.

It will be obvious from the above description that the device is capable of much modification without material departure from the spirit of the invention, and for this reason I do not wish to be understood as limiting myself to the precise form and arrangement of the several parts herein set forth.

What I claim is An automatic, electric, street or station indicator; comprising the combination with a supply-conductor, of suitable contact devices, an electromagnet, an armature 31, a wheel having a series of pins 21, a pawl 22 provided at its lower end with an outwardly-curved guide-arm 23, a fiat guide-spring 24, having at its free end the guide-arm 26 and yieldingly engaging said guide-arm of said pawl, a guidebracket 44 for said pawl, a push-rod 36, a base-casting 10 having vertically-alined perforated ears in which said push-rod is mounted to slide, a shoulder 42 on said push-rod between said ears, a spring mounted upon said push-rod between the lower ear and said shoulder, the lower end of said push-rod being pivotally connected to the upper end of said pawl, suitable connections between the upper end of said push-rod and said armature, and an endless web carrying name-cards and adapted to be actuated by the armature, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

FRANK H. IVEHRMANN.

Witnesses:

ALFRED A. EICKS, JOHN C. HIGDON. 

